Glasses

Yup thats me...in glasses again! I had lasik back in May 2006, I loved it..still do. I was SUPER near sided, couldn't see anything without my glasses(contacts never worked well for me, too many allergies bothered my eyes). Apparently when you are so near sided there is a greater chance with lasik that your vision can deteriate again and mine did. Oh well, I had a great 4 1/2 years without glasses and I plan on getting enhancement surgery done sometime after I move to Seattle. Until then I will be rocking the glasses again. :)

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Steve has been wearing and running in shoes called Vibram Five Fingers for quite a while now. Wearing them is like being barefoot. He started wearing them after having some pains from running. His pain has gone away and only comes back when he runs in shoes. He swears by them and if you want to know a lot more about them I would direct you to talk to him. He can talk your ears off about it. :)

A few weeks ago I got a pair of my own! I was supposed to read Born to Run before we would talk about getting me a pair, but then this happened....

I rolled my ankle while working out at the gym. Steve felt I should get a pair, as it would strengthen many of my muscles, including ones I don't probably use that much. So one day while out to lunch together we stopped by the only store in town that carries them. I tried one on (I was lucky they had my size, they are super popular) and they fit perfectly. So we got them! I couldn't wear them though for the last two weeks due to my right ankle being HUGE.

Here is is the night it happened with Yuri making sure I kept it elevated. This isn't even close to how big it got. You couldn't tell where my calf ended and my ankle began. I wish I would have taken some pictures of it a few days later.

But my ankle is almost normal size now and I can get my shoes on! This is my second time wearing them(they are on now as I type this). The first time took me over 5 minuets. I didn't time myself this wear, but I know it was faster than before. I haven't ran in them yet, just worn them around the house and took the dogs for a walk in them. They feel pretty neat.

New Toy

My wonderful husband got me a new computer this weekend. It is a laptop and it is awesome. Maybe I will blog more often now. We will see! :)

Schlitterbahn!!!

Kansas City is now home to one of the greatest water park chains in the world. I have been excited about Schlitterbahn Vacation Village since the day I heard they broke ground. This is a huge development and is going to take years to finish, but last week they finished Phase I of the park and it opened to the public. I just had to go!
So Saturday morning Steve and I packed up and headed to see how great it was. I was so excited! We got there a little before open and I was the very first person in the park that day.
12 of the 13 attractions were open. We went on all of them multiple times. My favorite was the tunnel slide on a 2 person tube. You go way faster on the 2 person tubes than you do going down alone. You can bring food and drinks into the park, so we packed a lunch and ate on one of the many picnic tables they had. We also scored some great lounge chairs that we could layout on in between rides. The weather was great for a day at the water park too. If anything the sun could have been out a little more. Getting there early was the best, there was hardly a crowd. In-fact when we left at 3pm it had just started to get packed. This allowed us to go up and down the slides so many times. We were worn out after 5 hours at the park. What a great day.

Yeah Right

I often look at The Knot's "What We Love" blog of wedding ideas and today I saw this.

Exit Ceremony Idea - Tandem Bike Getaway
Haha. Really? Can't you just see Steve and I now trying to ride a tandem bike away from the ceremony. I am barely able to ride a regular bike, let alone a tandem bike and in a wedding dress. Haha. Dream on The Knot.

Memorial Weekend

This last weekend Steve and I traveled to Houston, TX to spend Memorial weekend with Sarah L. It was a short trip, but really nice and relaxing. We got in Friday night and hung out at her house. Saturday we went downtown to an Astro's game and then out afterwards. Sunday we went shopping and then planned on having a pool party at one of Sarah's friend's house. It decided to rain when we got to the pool. :( It didn't last too long though and we were able to get in after a while. We grilled burgers and sat poolside the rest of the night. It was more relaxing than I think either Steve or I have done in a long time.

Here are a few pictures from our visit...

Cacti

I just thought this was funny and cute....
Found on Once Wed

More Adventures In Running...

A few Sunday’s ago Steve and I went to Lawrence for a 5K benefiting the Lawrence Human Society.
Being a dog jog, we of course took Chewie. We met Lauren, Nick and Callie at the race, which went around part of KU campus. It was Nick, Callie and Chewies first 5K event. Nick unfortunately was sidelined due to an injury. We look forward to him joining us in the future though, once he heals up.


Steve and I were unsure of how long Chewie could go in a race, as the most he usually walks is a quarter mile. Callie runs with Lauren often, so she had been training for her 5K debut. See below for a picture I found on RunLawrence of the start of the race. If you look to the left of the picture you can see Steve and Chewie. Steve is wearing an orange shirt. (Its kind of small though)

The beginning of the race was crazy. All of the dogs were so excited and were taking off full speed and then one by one having to stop to use the bathroom. Haha. I thought for sure Chewie wouldn’t get more than a mile and then we would be carrying him. No way! My little dog ran the entire thing! He would sprint his little butt off, then jog some, then sprint again. It was amazing. All 5 of us (Lauren, Callie, Steve, Chewie and I) ran the whole thing together. It was really fun.

Chewie still had a ton of energy after the race when we were all hanging around. Once we got into the car to head back home he crashed. He slept like a baby for the rest of the day. It was so much fun and maybe one of my favorite races we have done so far. Callie and Chewie were amazing. We are so lucky to have such beautiful dogs.

Brew to Brew

Sunday April 5th we ran in the Brew to Brew. It is a 44 mile relay race from The Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, MO to Freestate Brewery in Lawrence, KS. Proceeds from the brew to brew benefited The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There are 10 legs to the 44 mile race.
It was a great day for a run! Not really, see below for the forecast for the day..

It was cold, rainy and snowy! We managed to have a great time despite the bad weather. Our team was supposed to be 9 people, but we ended up only having 6 race day. It ended up working out really well. 4 team members ran 2 legs and 2 of us ran 1 leg(I only ran one, but it was the one with the worst weather!)Our Team (The Wizards of Koz)! From left to right: Joe, Me, Lauren, Steve, Emily and Drew.

At the end of the race there is a party at Liberty Hall in Lawrence with chicken and crayfish gumbo, bread, fruit, and beer. The food was good and I am sure the beer is too, but after such a long day of cold weather and running it was hard to drink.

Here are just a few pics from the race:

I can't wait to do it again next year. Hopefully the weather will be nicer!

Blizzard!

Even though it is officially Spring, Kansas City was hit with a ton of snow yesterday. It was foretasted 2 to 5 inches of snow. I can't find how much we exactly got but I would say it was more like 5 or more. The storm didn't hit till the afternoon and came in stages. First it was just rain, then freezing rain and hail and finally just snow. But the flakes were huge and falling in massive amounts. If it wasn't a high of 40 today the snow out is the best kind to make a snow man out of(super compact). Not so much the best kind for a Maltese to hang out in though. Every time Chewie went out last night he came back in with snow packed into him(it was up to his belly when he stood in it!). We got out the blow dryer to melt it off of him. We are all glad to see it has begun to melt already. This better be the last snow we see for a while!

Shamrock Shuffle

This past Saturday Steve and I participated in our second 5K, the Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shuffle.
We also added a new member to our little running group, Amy Huber. It was Amy’s first race, just a little more than a month after she started running and she did great! I improved my time from the Groundhog run by 4 minutes; while Steve is becoming lightning fast, almost catching up to Lauren.

It was a great race day, the weather was perfect and the rain that was forecasted held off for us. So far this has been my favorite of the two races we have done. I really enjoyed the path we took. It was on the levee by the river and I was really able to zone out on the scenery, something I usually cannot do. My favorite part of the race by far though was near the end. I came around a small bend, getting ready to go under the bridge and then up a short, but steep hill and I see both Lauren and Steve looking around the bend for me. After knowing they were there looking for me and cheering me on, the rest of the way to the finish line was a piece of cake. It’s a great feeling knowing they are going to be there at the end of every race cheering me on and are so proud of me. I was able to join them and just a few minuets later help cheer Amy on to the finish and that was great too.

Up next for the four of us is a 44 mile relay race, with 5 other people, in April.

Lazy Sunday

I have a ton I want to blog about this week. I thought I would start it all off by showing everyone how Chewie likes to spend his Sundays...being lazy. Sunday is always laundry day here are the James-Kozlen household and Chewie just jumps at the chance to help us out. Not really. hehe
He prefers napping under the clean clothes pile to helping us fold and hang things up. :)

He is always soooo cute! :)

Yes I really do run....

Today Steve and I ran in our first race ever. Lauren found this great 5K that takes place in a cave, the Subtropolis. It was the 27th Annual Groundhog Run.

Steve finished with a time of 30:10, placing him in 85th in his age group (there were 132 people in his age group).

Lauren kicked butt, finishing 29th in our age group! Our age group had 188 people in it. I ran the race in 39:05, placing me 163. I'm pretty proud of that considering I had never ran a day in my life until last October. :)
The race was a ton of fun. I am looking forward to running another one...when it's warmer :)
We are thinking the St Patrick's Day run in Lawrence may be next.

LOVE

How cute is this needlepoint...